


Miraculous: Tales of Another Life.

by SophiaEAnderson



Series: Miraculous: Tales of Another Life [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Actress Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Amputee, Cancer, Chloé Bourgeois is kind of good, F/F, F/M, Famous Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Fashion World, Gen, M/M, Marinette Dupain-Cheng had cancer, Marinette Dupain-Cheng lost limbs to cancer, Model Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Multi, Secret Identity, She's at least a better person, amputee Marinette Dupain-Cheng
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25615492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiaEAnderson/pseuds/SophiaEAnderson
Summary: Google claims that Osteosarcoma is the third most common type of cancer founding youths. How would Marinette’s life change if at a young age she was diagnosed with cancer, eventually losing her limbs?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette & Adrien & Chloé & Sabrina, Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Alya Cesaire, Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Chloe Bourgeois, Marinette Dupian-Cheng & Adrien Agreste
Series: Miraculous: Tales of Another Life [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1856755
Kudos: 28





	1. Origins Day 1 Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am still in the process of writing this but I wanted to post it, mostly for feedback so I may end up going back and fixing some things as time goes on.

“Marinette!” Sabine Cheng called out. “Your alarms been going off for 15 minutes. You’re going to be late on your first day back at school. 

“Got it mom.” Marinette called back, still half asleep. She was surprise to see the only notification on her phone was for missed alarms. She was expecting a million texts by now. 

Stretching, Marinette wiggled out from under her covers, scooting down to the end of her bed. She leaned down, grabbing her rose gold coloured bionic arm from it’s resting place and slipped it into position on her left arm. Happy with it’s position she flexed the robotic fingers out before bring them into a fist to make sure the arm was responding properly. 

Marinette repositioned herself so she lined up with the slide that met her bed before pushing herself down, ascending from her loft to the main part of her room. She picked up her elbow crutches before making her way to the vanity. She went through her morning routine, cleaning her face, putting on the small amount of makeup she did, and putting her hair up into pigtails. From there she moved to closet, puling out the outfit she’d pick the day before, tossing it onto the chaise. She replaced her light grey sleeping shirt with the white top with a flora pattern along the top left of it. She slipped on the dark grey jacket she decided to wear with it, the sleeves already rolled up so they fell just above her elbows. 

Marinette then sat down on her chaise, leaning her crutches against the wall. She grabbed her leg liner, slipping it over her left leg before grabbing the pink jeans that would bring her outfit together. She reached out, grabbing her prosthetic leg and slipping the left pant leg over it, the black socks and pink flats already on her prosthetic foot. Once everything was on right, she bent the prosthetic knee until it match positions with her flesh knee. She slipped her left leg into the prosthetic socket before placing her right leg in the right pant leg. Slipping the jeans up to her knees she stood up and pulled them the rest of the way up. She carefully stepped back and forth to make sure her leg was properly adjusted and working before grabbing her school bag and phone and heading over to her trap door.

Marinette made her way down the stairs, having learned over the years, and a few poorer quality prosthetics, that rushing would only result in her tripping and potentially falling down the stairs. She gave her mom, who was in the kitchen a kiss on the cheek before going over to the barstool, using her right hand to press against the seat to lift herself up onto the chair. She started pouring milk into the bowl her mom had set out for her before grabbing the cereal and adding it. 

“Excited for your first day?” Sabine asked her daughter. 

“You mean for another year of disappointment?” Marinette asked. 

“Who knows Marinette, maybe this year will be your guys’ lucky year. It’s bound to happen eventually. That man can’t keep him locked up forever.” Sabine said. 

“Me? Lucky?” Marinette asked. As if proving her point as she places the cereal box down, an orange fell from the fruit bowl, rolling down a baguette that had been leaning against said bowl, over the knife half in the butter, flipping the spoon out of the sugar cube bowl causing some to toss out, before someone to an end knocking over the carton of milk and yogurt cup. And then just to spite Marinette, another orange knocked over the cereal bowl.

“Uoh.” Marinette groaned. That was just like her luck.

Sabine came over to mop up the milk that had spilt on the floor while Marinette cleaned up the cereal. Sabine let out a little chuckle, rubbing a hand against her daughters cheek to try and cheer her up a bit. After all, if she got all her bad luck out of the way while she was home then she had a better chance of having good luck at school. Marinette smiled at her mom before tucking in to her breakfast, she had school after all. 

Marinette made her way down to the bakery to hear her dad ‘la la-ing’ along to a song only in his head. Her turned around having heard her enter to show her the box of macaroons he had made for her to bring for her class.

“Dad, these are so awesome!” Marinette exclaimed. They looked so good she couldn’t wait until she could share them with her new classmates, if they had any this year. Collège Françoise Dupont seemed to like to keep students together since there hadn’t been a new classmate in almost three years. 

“Glad you like them.” Tom Dupain said, closing the lid. 

“Thank you dad,” Marinette said, carefully taking the box from her dad. “My class will love them. You’re the best.”

“We’re the best, thanks to your amazing designs.” Tom said picking up his daughters sketch book which was open to the bakeries new logo that Marinette had designed. 

Marinette smiled happily at her dad before flinging her arms around him to pull him into a hug, forgetting that she had the dessert box in her hands. The box went sailing towards the floor. 

Tom let out a little laugh as her caught them with him foot, tossing them back up in the air before catching them. 

“Thanks,” Marinette said, before grabbing her backpack from her mom, who was checking to make sure she had everything, giving her mom a quick kiss on the cheek before doing the same with her dad as she took the dessert box back. “See you tonight.” She said as she headed out the door.

Marinette tried to rush to make the light but it turned just as she made it to the cross walk. She sighed, realizing she was probably going to be late now. She really needed to get an alarm that could actually get her up on time, since by now it was obvious that she wasn’t just going to be able to go to bed earlier, not when inspiration always hit her at night. 

She glanced up and almost screamed in alarm. An elderly man was in the middle of crossing, back heavily arched as he leaned on his cane for support, moving slowly. Marinette glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed the man, panicking when she saw a car speed towards him. Not knowing what else to do and not want to see him hit, she rushed out into the road, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the sidewalk. Her flesh foot caught against the sidewalks curb and she fell to the ground just as the car zoomed past. 

“Thank you miss,” the elderly man said. “Oh, what a disaster.”

Marinette groaned, picking herself up off the ground, to see that the dessert box had landed on the ground next to her, half the macaroons were now either on the ground or broken. Oh well, at least they made it out of the house in one piece. 

Marinette made a noise of disappointment as the people around them walk past as if nothing had happened, some even stepping the macaroons that had fallen out. “Oh don’t worry.” Marinette assured the stranger. “I’m no stranger to disasters, besides, there’s still a few left.” She held out the box for him to grab one.

“Mmm, delicious!” The man said after having taken a bite. 

A bell rang out from the school. 

“Oh no, I’m going to be late.” She bowed politely to the man. “Have a nice day sir.” 

She started rushing to the school hoping that it was only to first bell to tell everyone to head to class and not the second one that would mean she was late. As she made her way to the front door, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw kids still making their way into the building.

“There you are Dupain-Cheng.” A voice called out from behind her.

Oh, maybe she had breathed that sigh of relief too soon. 

“Chloe!” She turned around to see her friend standing there, arms crossed.

“You’re so lucky you’re not late.” Chloe said taking the box from her friend and opening it to grab a cookie. “Had a little cookie accident?”

“Drop them when I pulled an old man out of the way from being hit by a car.” Marinette explained as her friend took a bite out of one of the cookies. “I’’m just glad I got there in time and that some of the cookies lived.”

Chloe shook her head. “Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. You’d think someone without prosthetics would help out instead of letting the disabled kid save the old man, not that you’re not perfectly capable.” 

Marinette hummed. She and Chloe made their way into the school, towards Mrs. Bustier class since there wouldn’t be enough time for her to stop by her locker now.

“Any sign of him?” Marinette asked. 

“No, but I’m sure he’ll be here any moment.” Chloe said, her nose high in the air.

“Chlo, I know you don’t want to hear it but you know how his dad is, there’s a good chance he’s not coming.” Marinette said gently, not wanting her friend to be devastated later on like in previous years.

“I know, but this was the first time we’ve been able to actually enrol him. His dad doesn’t need to know until it’s too late.” Chloe countered.

Sabrina ran up to them excitedly as they neared the classroom. “Chloe, Marinette.” She greeted. “Word has it, we have a new kid in class.”

Chloe looked over at Marinette smugly. Looks like he had made it after all.

The three walked in class as the second bell rang, not technically late. Mrs. Bustier was calling for Nino, a student they’d shared class with since the third grade, to move to the front row. Marinette handed Sabrina one of the macaroons as they headed to their tables. Marinette set her back on the table in the front row by the window only to find a girl already sitting there.

“You’re not Adrien.” Chloe said, as Sabrina placed both their stuff on the table behind Marinettes. “And you’re in Marinette’s spot.”

“It’s fine Chloe,” Marinette said quietly, feeling disappointed that the blond model wasn’t the so called new student Sabrina had heard about. “I can share.”

“And what about when Adrien gets here, are you just going to abandon him?” Chloe demanded.

“Chlo, you know I wouldn’t do that and I don’t mean that.” Marinette said. “But it’s fine for now. If Adrien shows up then we can figure it out from there, but she’s not doing any harm.”

Chloe huffed but she went and sat in her seat without any more complaints.

“Alright, has everyone found a seat?” Mrs. Bustier asked from the front. 

Marinette turned to her new seat mate handing her a macaroon. “I’m Marinette. Sorry about Chloe, our friend was suppose to start school today but his father, like in past years, probably stopped him. She’s taking it a bit hard, usually she’s not that bad.”

“Alya, and I guess I can understand why she was upset.” The new kid said. She looked down at Marinette’s outreached hand to take the cook and noticed her prosthetic arm. “Oh wicked, just like Bionica, though she’s half robot.”

Marinette smiled, used to getting reactions like this from people her age. She didn’t allow it to bug her, at least it wasn’t coming from an adult, who in her experience were a lot more insensitive. At least this Alya girl thought her arm was cool. 

“You a superhero fan?” she asked.

“More like a super fan.” Alya said. She reached in her bag and pulled out phone, her screen saver being the latest comic Majestia cover. “My favourite is by far Majestia. She says ‘all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing’. Words to live by, right?”

“Yeah,” Marinette said with a smile. “If you want help getting around school, I can show you around after class since I’m class deputy.”

Alya returned her smile. “That’d be great. Kind of new to Paris, not just this school so knowing my way around somewhere would be great.”

Marinette grinned before turning back to the front as Mrs. Busier called them to attention.


	2. Origins Day 1 Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story can be read on my Tumblr here: https://whatisthiscontentyouspeakof.tumblr.com/post/623507166945492992/miraculous-tales-of-another-life-rough
> 
> I will most likely update weekly on my Tumblr and update all the chapters here either at the same time or once a month depending on how busy I am.

Adrien could feel excitement building in his chest as he sprinted. The school was in sight, he was almost there. A familiar car u-turned, parking along the curb side in front of the school. Natalie was out the door just as the car pulled to a stop.

“Adrien,” She said, climbing out, “please reconsider. You know what you father wants.”

Adrien wanted to keep running up the stairs, what he wanted was so close but after only a few steps he turned and looked at Natalie. “This is what I want to do,” he tried to reason with her as she and his bodyguard, the Gorilla, approached him.

“Oof.” Adrien heard as the a thump was sounded, pulling his attention away from his fathers employees. He saw an older man in a Hawaiian shirt on the ground, what appeared to be his cane, having skidded out of reach. As Adrian looked he saw as a business man just walked by, not even sparing a glance at the older man who was now trying to reach out for his cane, before dropping his hand, groaning in pain.

Without a second thought Adrien rushed forward, not believing how rude some people could be. He bent down, handing the man his cane before helping him to his feet.

“Thank you young man,” the man said gratefully.

Adrien glanced back towards the school to see the Gorilla blocking his path to the stairs up to the building. He sighed in disappointment but accepted the fact that he wouldn’t be going to school today. He walked over to Natalie and the Gorilla with is head down.

“I just want to go to school.” He said. “Like Marinette and Chloe and everyone else, what’s so wrong with that?” He glanced up at Natalie before looking back at the ground. “Please don’t tell my father about all this.”

Natalie headed towards the car as the Gorilla put a hand on a disappointed Adrien’s back, leading him back towards the vehicle. He got in the back with Natalie as the Gorilla drove them back home, all the while trying to convince himself that everything was okay, that he was fine being homeschooled…again.

* * *

The bell rang signalling the end of class.

“Thos of you who have PE, Mr. D’Argencourt is expecting you at the stadium.” Mrs. Bustier said as the students all started packing up, heading towards the door. “The rest of you can head over to the library.”

“KIIIMMM!” Ivan’s voice ran out in anger. Marinette spun to look back at the large boy, seeing his fist winding back to punch an amused looking Kim.

“Ivan what is going on?” Mrs. Bustier demanded.

“It’s Kim,” Ivan explained looking up to his teacher. He trend back to Kim, winding his fist back up. “He’s so gonna get i-“

“Ivan, go to the principal’s office.” Mrs. Bustier demanded.

Ivan crunched up a piece of paper with a growl, shooting Kim a glare before throwing his bag over his shoulder and heading out the classroom door.

“I wonder what that was about?” Marinette asked softly. “It’s not like Ivan to get aggressive like that.” She turned to look back at Alya. “I just need to stop by my locker since I didn’t get a chance to before class, but then I can show you where the library is.”

“That’d be great.” Alya said collecting herself.

Marinette turned around to look at Sabrina and Chloe. She smiled softly at Chloe, who was looking quite disappointed. “I’m going to give Alya a quick tour. We’ll meet you at the library.” she said. She hesitated a moment, not sure if she should say anything but thought she could at least give her friend some hope. “You know how Gabriel is, maybe Adrien just couldn’t get away today. There’s always tomorrow.”

“Yes.” Chloe agreed. “His father is also notorious for scheduling shoots last minute.” Marinette had to hold her tongue at that, since Alya was still so close. “He could very well be working.”

“Exactly.” Marinette said. She saw that Alya was good to go. “I’ll see you in the library. Usual spot?”

“Usual spot.” Chloe confirmed.

“Great.” Marinette said shooting her friend a smile before turning back to Alya. “You good to go?”

Alya nodded and the two girls left the classroom. After a quick stop at her locker, Marinette lead Alya to the library. “I can show you around during lunch so you can get around fine without any help and I also have a full map of the school with a list of clubs and where and when they take place that I can print off for you in case you’re interest in any extra curricular activities.”

“I’d like that.” Alya said. “Not to sound rude, but you said you’re only the class deputy. Isn’t this all the job of class president?”

Marinette laughed. “I guess that is a bit confusing. My parents own the bakery across the street but they also co-own a few restaurants around the country with my aunt, so sometimes when they have to travel I have to go with them because they don’t want me alone by myself. In sixth grade when they asked who wanted to be class president, I really wanted to but it didn’t feel right with the amount I travel so Chloe ran for president and I ran as her deputy. We’re more co-presidents though. We both go to meetings, and other mandatory things and stuff like that but when it comes to dealing with the class and students I’m the lead when I hear, but when I’m gone, Chloe’s in charge, which she likes since she wanted to be president to learn basic skills in case she decided to follow in her dads foot prints and enter politics, but she also still wants to have time as a kid and not be super stressed out, so sharing works for both of us, and oh gosh I’m rambling.”

Alya laughed. “It’s fine girl, it was informative.” Alya reassured her. “So Chloe’s dads a politician?”

Marinette looked at her funny. “Wow, you must be new to Paris. Chloe’s dad is André Bourgeois, the mayor.” she said. “Speaking of, what do you parents do? I’m not familiar with the Césaire name.”

Alya looked at her in concern. “You look like I’m about to freak out on you girl.”

Marinette’s panic face turned to one more sheepish. “Sorry. I’ve had a few people freak out on me in the past when I said I didn’t know who they parents were. Which is to be expected.”

“Why?” Alya asked.

“Collège Françoise Dupont is like one step away from being a private school.” Marinette explained. “Parents who don’t want their kids going to normal public school, but don’t want to send them off to private school, send them here. So you have kids with important parents. So like how mine have the bakery, with another location on the way, they are pastry chefs for several Michelin star restaurants, so they’re quite well known and respected. Chloe’s dad is the mayor, as well as owning quite a bit of property around Paris, most notably Le Grand Paris and her mom is Audrey Bourgeois, the director of Style Queen, the real life Miranda Priestly. Alix, the girl with pink hair, her father is Alim Kubdel a famous historian who currently works at the Louvre. Mylène, the girl with the colourful dreadlocks, her father is Fred Haprèle who you’ll probably meet eventually since he’s an assistant educator here. He was a really well known actor several years ago but took time off to focus on Mylène when her mom died but from what I hear, he’s started acting again. And the list goes on.”

“Oh wow.” Alya said trying not to feel overwhelmed. “My dad, Otis, works at Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes as a zookeeper and my mom, Marlena, is the new head chef at Le Grand Paris.”

Marinette smiled at her new friend. “Oh, she must be good then. Can’t wait to try her food sometime. Mayor Bourgeois is notorious for hiring only the best to work for him, especially at the hotel.”

Marinette lead Alya to the table by the historical section where Chloe and Sabrina would be waiting. She nodded to Mr. Eldred (his last name was Weaver but he didn’t like his students calling him by it), who watched over this periods study hall on her way over. Chloe was texting away, probably with Adrien to find out what happened to him, whether he was answering or not was anyone guess. Sabrina was organizing her school supplies, colour coding everything so she’d be prepared for the rest of the day. A part of Marinette was jealous, colour coded organization always look so nice, but she found for herself a more chaotic organization style was the only thing that worked.

“Hey Chlo, did you know that Alya’s mom is the new chef you dad hired?” Marinette asked her friend as she sat down at the table. “I was telling Alya that she must be good with how picky you’re father is with his staff.”

“That is true.” Chloe agreed. Before she could say anything Boom was heard as the ground shook, causing Marinette, Chloe, Sabrina and Alya to fall out of their chairs as a few students screamed.

Marinette took a moment to look over her arm from the ground, making sure nothing had been damaged when she fell since most of her weight had landed on her arm prosthetic, which meant her leg was probably fine, though she’d have to check somewhere she could take her pants off.

“Come on,” Alya said, dragging her up onto her feet and rushing to the exit. It was then that it sunk in that the boom very well could have been some sort of explosion or something since it hadn’t felt like an earthquake.

There was another boom as the rounded the corner to the front of the library where people where looking at the monitors that displayed a few security camera vids. A giant… rock monster?! stood at the front of the steps, a crater under his feet, the cause of at least one of the booms.

“KIIIMMM!” the monster yelled, it’s-his? voice coming clearing through the screens mics. The voice sounded a bit different, rougher, robably from the mics quality, but the tone had been the same Ivan had used at the end of class when he got angry with Kim.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Marinette asked, not really expecting anyone to be able to answer her. Panic was starting to form in the pit of her stomach. “He had Ivan’s voice.”

“It’s as if he’s been transformed into a real life super villain.” Alya said from beside her sounding, and looking, excited. She pulled out of her phone. “GPS check. Batter check. I am so out of here.” Alya rushed towards the doors.

“Hey, where are you going?” Marinette called after her.

“Where there’s a super villain, there’s always a superhero close behind.” Alya called back to her. “No way I’m missing this.” With that she shoved open the doors and ran out.

A part of Marinette wanted to run after her but another part was way to scared. She looked back at the monitor to see Ivan pick up a car people had just abandoned and throw it at the school with another yell of ‘Kim’. Marinette flinched away as the camera feed died.

She felt a hand on her back. “Come on, let’s head home like sane people.” Chloe said gently. “I’m sure Sabine and Tom are going to be worried when they hear about this. Tell them they can come to the hotel if they feel like they’re in too much danger so close to the school. Sabrina and I are going to head out in my room since her dad’s probably been called in.” She smiled at Marinette, trying to calm her friend down. “And hey, new girl’s probably right, if Paris now has a super villain then it must mean we’re going to get our own superheroes soon that will come and save the day.”

Marinette took a deep breath, trying to centre herself so she could calm down. “You’re right.”

“Of course I am Mari, and anyways, monster Ivan seems focused on finding Kim so we’re probably in no danger, we’re not the ones who pissed him off.” Chloe said.

* * *

Adrien rested his head against his hand, bored as Natalie walked back and forth across the room.

“Who was the first president of the fifth French Republic?” she asked him.

Adrien sighed. “Everyone thinks it was de Gaulle but it was actually Rene Cote before the first elections.”

“Excellent Adrien,” Natalie praised.

“Give me a moment would you Natalie?”

Adrien looked up in surprise, fixing his posture as he did so, not having noticed his father entering the room.

“Yes sir,” Natalie said before moving to the corner of the room and pulling up some files to look over so she was in the way.

Gabriel Agreste turned his cold eyes to his son. “You are not going to school.” he said firmly, an undertone of anger in his voice. “I’ve already told you.”

“But father-“ Adrien protested, not surprised that either Natalie or the Gorilla sold him out. It was his father and not him they worked for after all, he was expecting it.

Gabriel cut his son off. “Everything you need is right here where I can keep an eye on you. I will not have you outside in that dangerous world.”

“It’s not dangerous father.” Adrien protested, standing up. Chloe and Marinette were fine after all and it’s not like they were low profile people. “I’m always stuck in here by myself. Why can’t I go out and make friends just like everyone else.” He knew he had the girls but sometimes it’d be nice to have a guy friend.

“Because you are not like everyone else.” Gabriel snapped. “You are my son. Continue.” The last part was an order to Natalie.

Natalie waiting until Gabriel was out of earshot. “We can leave it there for today if you-“

Adrien didn’t let her finish, rushing from the room, angry. Why did his dad have to be such a control freak? Couldn’t he be like Marinette’s dad or Chloe’s- no couldn’t her be like Marinette’s dad?

Adrien slammed his bedroom door closed and threw himself onto his bed, hugging his pillow to his face.

Sometimes he could just scream. It’s not like there was anyone around to hear him.

Thump. Thump. Thump! Thump!

Adrien pulled his head away from the pillow as the ground seemed to shake, each shake accompanied by a thump sound. It was sort of in a rhythm, like footsteps.

Adrien got up out of his bed and headed down towards the mansions entrance, throwing open the doors and stepping out onto the front landing. Adrien couldn’t quite see what was going on but he knew something was. The ground was still shacking and he could hear a bunch of police sirens going off in the distance.

Adrien rushed back to his room and turned on the TV. If something big was going on, then someone would be reporting it.

Mayor Bourgeois appeared on the screen instantly, he hadn’t even had to change the channel, an emergency broadcast having took over the networks. The news banner read ‘Un Super-Vilain À Paris?’

“I’m asking all Parisians to stay home until this situation is under control.” Chloe’s dad said. A bunch of reporters started asking Mayor Bourgeois questions, TVi News paused the clip and reported Nadja Chamack took over.

“As incredible as it seems,” she said, “it’s been confirmed that Paris is indeed being attacked by a super villain.” The clip of the mayor change to a helicopter shot of a stone person confronting the police. “The police have been struggling to keep the situation under control.”

The screen was taken over by a ground clip of a reporter Adrien didn’t recognize talking to Lieutenant Raincomprix, a cop who was supposedly the father of another friend of Chloe and Marinettes. His right arm was in a makeshift cast/sling combo, probably injured in the confirmation that TVi had show seconds before.

“Be confident the strong arm of the law will come crashing down on-“ he started to say, lifting his injured arm up in the air and wincing. “I mean the other arm-“

* * *

Marinette sat in her computer chair, a pillow clutched to her chest, as she watched Mr. Raincomprix being interviewed on the news. Oh how she wished this was all over already. At least Ivan had decided to move head away from the school and Marinette’s house. Her parents didn’t have to worry about their bakery and house being destroyed.

“I hate first days back at school.” Marinette couldn’t help but say to herself. She’d never had a good day back to school. Though a super villain did top breaking her arm and finding out she had cancer on the first day of second grade. She hadn’t thought anything would top that.

Marinette glanced down spotting a hexagon box that hadn’t been there yesterday and thus not this morning when she left for school.

“What’s this doing here?”

Marinette picked up the strange box and opened the lid, maybe it was something her mom had gotten at an asian store for her and put it in her room while she was at school. A bright red light emitted from the box. It died down to reveal…

Earrings?

* * *

Adrien looked down at the coffee table as the news went on in the background talking about what had happened, seeing a red and back hexagon box. It was strange, it had an oriental design on it, decently not something of his fathers creation.

“What’s this doing here?” Adrien asked. It was quite confusing since nothing got in the house without Gabriel or Natalie knowing and neither of them would get him something like this.

He reached down and picked up the box, carefully opening it. A bright, toxic green light emitted from the box. It died down to reveal…

A ring?

So not how he expected that to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone wondering, I based the general look and function of Marinettes prosthetic arm off Hero Arm by Open Bionics. In the future I may come up with a name for the company who makes Marinettes arm since I don’t think I’ll be using the Hero Arm name. This is mainly because (in cannon) there are superheroes and whenever you see something with superheroes in it technology is always more advanced. Not specifically using Hero Arm as Marinettes prosthetic leaves me open to include functions in the arm that may not be possible in real life.


	3. Origins Day 1 Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also posted on Tumblr: https://whatisthiscontentyouspeakof.tumblr.com/post/623507166945492992/miraculous-tales-of-another-life-rough

A green light orb flew from the ring causing Adrien to lean back and shield his eyes as if flew up in the hair, hovering a few inches above the jewellery box and ring. The light died down to reveal some sort of… was that a small flying cat with a oversized head. 

Did someone forget to tell him he was the star of an anime?

The cat like creature stretched its arms out with a large yawn, revealing a black tongue, though the rest of the inside of its mouth was purple. The cat thing slouched forward, looking tired.

Adrien leaned forward, trying to get a better look. “No way. Like the genie in the lamp.” Adrien couldn’t help but comment to himself. This was so cool. He reached out to try and poke the thing.

“I met him once.” The flying cat thing said, speaking perfect French, leaning away from his touch. “So he grants wishes, big deal. I’m way more personable. Plagg nice to meet you.”

Before Adrien could introduce himself the thing went flying across his room with a ‘oh’. He went over the the foosball table. “Swanky.” The cat said before opening its, or was it a he? the voice was defiantly masculine, mouth and bitting down on one of the players heads. 

“No! Don’t touch that.” Adrien said, now unsure if the thing was dangerous or not and if it could actually bite through the metal of the players head. He dove forward trying to grab the thing. 

“Hey come back,” he demanded as the thing flew away, it’s attention caught by something else. 

“Oh, it’s so shiny,” the thing said, landing on one of his arcade machines. “Can you eat this?” it asked biting down on the red handle of the joy stick, not waiting for a response. It pulled away from it. “No you can’t,” Adrien dove for it but once again it’s attention was caught by something else. “Oh, what about this?”

Being a star in an anime wasn’t nearly as cool as he thought it’d be.

* * *

A red light orb flew from the earnings causing Marinette to fling it away from her with a shriek as she turned her head away, closing her eyes to protect them from the light. She peeked one eye at the flying orb to see the light burn away to reveal…

Marinette shoved herself away from the desk and that.. thing, with a scream, flying to her feet. “Help.” She yelled, though her voice didn’t come out nearly loud enough for her parents to hear all the way in the bakery. “It’s a giant bug…a mouse…a bug mouse.”

She honestly wasn’t sure exactly what that thing flying in her room was. 

“Everything’s okay,” the thing said. Oh my god it could talk. And now it way flying closer. “Don’t be scared.”

Too late for that.

Marinette reached over and picked up the first object she could off her desk, a book, and threw it at the thing, screaming a bit as she did so. “The mouse talks.” What was her life coming to. She threw another book following by other and her case of paperclips and a notebook.

The red thing dogged everything she threw at it, coming closer and closer. Marinette tripped over the ceiling beam that connected to her floor, falling on her butt. She wasn’t about to let the stop her, taking a shoebox and throwing it at the thing.

“Listen Marinette.” The thing said. Trying to hit the thing wasn’t working so Marinette tried reaching around for something to trap it in, never taking her eyes off it. “I know everything may seem a bit strange to you but-“

Marinette took the cup she found and slammed it over the thing, trapping it. 

“Okay.” The thing said, looking resigned to it’s fate. “If that makes you feel safer.”

“What are you? and how did you know my name?” Marinette asked. 

“I’m a Kwami,” the thing said, putting a hand to it’s chest, “and my name is Tikki. Now just let me explain.”

Yeah, an explanation would be good.

* * *

Adrien quickly scaled his way up his rock wall, keeping as close of an eye as he could on the flying creature, which was now nibbling on the TV remote, without falling down. He made sure he was lined up properly before pushed away from the wall, twisting and diving towards the creating, hands outreached to grab it.

The creature screamed as Adrien’s hands closed around it and they smacked against the couch. 

“I still don’t know what you’re doing here.” Adrien said, wanting answers. 

The thing turned to him looking unimpressed, though according to the internet, that’s just how cats were. “Look, I’m a Kwami. I grant powers. Yours is the power of destruction, got it?”

“Uh uh.” Adrien said with a shake of his head. 

“Good.” The thing, the kwami, said. “Now, you got anything to eat? I’m starving.”

Adrien pulled himself to his feet, the kwami still tightly held in his hands. “My dad’s pranking me, right?” he said to the thing. “Wait, he couldn’t be, he had no sense of humour.”

The kwami pulled itself from his grip, flying to eye level with Adrien. “Your father must never know that I exist.” The creature ordered. “Or anyone for that matter.”

* * *

Marinette looked at the thing and when it didn’t start talking again, she placed her left arm on the cup so this Kwami thing couldn’t push it way out, reaching her right arm out to open the trap door.

“Mom!” she yelled. This was way to freaky for her to deal with on her own. “Dad!”

She ignored whatever the thing was saying as it tried to make her be quiet. That was until it flew through the glass cup she’d trapped it in and hovered over her right hand.

“I’m your friend Marinette,” the thing said to her. “You must trust me. You’re the only one who can stop Stoneheart.” 

Stoneheart? Is that what the news was calling Ivan now that he went all super villain-y?

Marinette allowed the trap door to fall back down, as she pushed herself to her feet. “This has to be some mistake.” she told the red kwami. “The only superpower I could possibly have is super awkwardness.” Marinette suddenly perked up as her brain went to her new seat mate. “I know, Alya would know.” She was a superhero fan after all. “That’s my friend, well at least I think she would. She loves superheroes, she’d totally be up for the job. You should go see her.”

The kwami flew until it was eye level to Marinette, who leaned back to be farther away from it. “Marinette,” it said, “You’re the chosen one.”

What, was she suddenly in one of those animes Adrien loved so much and someone forgot to tell her? Cause if so, so not cool.

* * *

“But I’m stuck here.” Adrien pointed out to the flying kwami, Plagg. It was telling him he was suppose to take down the rock villain but there was no way her could. “I’m not even allowed to go to school. What good is a superhero who’s imprisoned in his own house?”

Plagg ran buy, balancing on a roll of toilet paper. “No good.” He? Adrien was going with he, said. “That’s why it’s all going to change soon, if you’re willing to change that is.”

Adrien looked down at the white metal ring in his hand that Plagg had said would give him the power to take down Stoneheart. Was he really doing to disobey his father and sneak out to go fight a super villain?

Ha, did you even need to ask.

* * *

Marinette picked up the earrings, placing one in her ear as Tikki had said. “Okay, so all i have to do is break the object where the whatchamacallit is hiding.” Marinette said. She was glad to know Ivan wasn’t really a super villain, even if he was being controlled by one. 

“It’s called an Akuma,” Tikki said again. “Which you must then capture.”

“Got it.” Marinette said with a little nod. “Capture it, and what’s that charm thing again?”

“The Lucky Charm; it’s your secret super power.” Tikki said.

Marinette groaned. “This is all going too fast, Tikki. I-I-I won’t be Abel to pull this off.” How could she be a hero? She was clumsy and forget and was missing two limbs. What kind of superhero didn’t have all their limbs? Sure there was Bionica, but she was half robot. It wasn’t the same.

“Trust yourself Marinette.” Tikki said. “Just say ‘spots on’.”

“Spots on?” Marinette so shouldn’t have said that. A noise came from her earrings as Tikki flew towards her, a big light surrounding them.

“What is happening?” Marinette asked. panicky, as Tikki flew into the earrings. 

Marinette was temporarily blinded, as the light filled the room. She felt something slid across her eyes along her arms and down her legs. The light faded just as quickly as it appeared. Marinette looked down and saw a bunch of red and black.

* * *

Adrien slipped the ring on, marvelling at how well it fit. He didn’t normally like rings but this one felt like it belonged. 

Plagg poked his head of of a empty toilet paper roll, the rest of his body still inside it. “Claws out,” he said. “That’s how you transform.”

“Got it,” Adrien said, feeling excited. Freedom was just around the corner. “Plagg, claws out.” He pushed the hand the ring was on towards the kwami

“No, I haven’t finished explaining!” Plagg yelled as she was sucked towards and then into the ring.

Adrien could feel what he assumed to be magic, flowing all around him as a bright green light surrounded him. He reached out towards the magic allowing it to surround him and move him. He swiped across his eyes, leaving a mask behind, before running his hands across his head leaving behind cat ears. He threw his arms out allowing the magic suit to form around him, all the way down to his toes. He did expect the tail that yanked around his waist but the claws were cool. 

The green light died down and he looked down at his hands which were now covered in a black material, somewhere between leather and spandex but not rubber. “Too cool.” He said grinning down at his hands.

* * *

Moving towards her floor length mirror to get a better look, Marinette didn’t know how she felt. A part of her felt like she was wearing a stupid halloween costume while another part of her thought she looked cool. The first thing she noticed wasn’t the fact that her left arm and leg where still prosthetics, but the fact that the rest of her looked quite robotic. Sure she had your average domino mask, though hers was red with five black polkadots on it, like most heroes to hide her identity. And her fingers, midsection and pelvic all seemed to be covered in some sort of material; one she’d never seen before, which was saying something but you know, magic apparently. As this said typical hero well enough but then the rest of her body was covered in red and black polkadot plated armour that had a distinct robotic look to them. It was nice because it didn’t right away make it obvious that she had prosthetics, which was good for her secret identity. Her bangs were the same but her ponytails were a couple inches longer, meeting to a perfect point at the end. NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT HER HAIR WASN’T BLACK ANYMORE. No it was a blue colour that was someone in the Yale to Prussian blue colour house. Not that the shade matter; HER HAIR WAS BLUE!

Tikki said nothing about this physically changing her appearance. Was it going to go back? Or would she have blue hair forever? Sure someone people said her black hair looked blue under certain lighting but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t notice her with legit blue hair. Marinette reached her hands up to rest on her head, her right hand fingers digging in her hair at the disaster that this day was turning into and felt her left fingers dig in as well.

Marinette jerked back, flinging her hands out in front of her. She looked at her left arm n fascination. She could tell it was a prosthetic but it wasn’t acting like any she had before. Ashe focused on her fight arm, flexing her nub (the term of choice she used for her residual limb, aka her left elbow to where her arm was amputated) as she would to grip down with her normal prosthetic, but instead of all the fingers closing together, her pinkie went first, causing a domino effect as the rest of her fingers followed suit. 

Marinette wasn’t sure how to move forward. To work her normal arm it picked up two different muscles and depending on how she flexed them depended on how her hand opened and closed but she wasn’t able to individually control fingers. She decided to focus on the hand itself, hoping magic would do the rest, telling herself she was going to just lift up her pointed finger. Sure enough just her pointer finger lifted up. Marinette played around with lifting her left fingers and turning her wrist by itself before horror took hold of her.

What if Tikki had made her part robot like Bionica and that’s why her prosthetic moved more like her flesh arm and hand then it did like a normal prosthetic. 

Panic gripped Marinette’s heart; she hadn’t sighed up for this. She grabbed the arm prosthetic and tried pulling it off like she would her normal prosthetic but it didn’t budge.

“How does this thing come off?” Marinette demanded. “Tikki, if you can hear me, I want my normal body back. I don’t want to be a superhero.”

The news broadcast still playing on Marinettes computer caught her attention as cameras continued to follow Ivan across town. “After wrecking the Société* Towers, Stoneheart is heading towards the Montparnasse Tower. The monster seems to be unstoppable.”

But Marinette wasn’t listening anymore. “Alya,” she whispered in horror as she saw her new friend biking behind Stoneheart. 

“Marinette, did I hear you calling for us before?” Her moms voice came from bellow the trapped door. Marinette took a break for the stairs to the loft, praying her mom didn’t see her.

“Yeah but I figured it out.” Marinette called back down to her mom just as her moms head poked through the trapped door.

“Marinette are you in here?” She asked.

“Just headed up to tend to my flowers,” Marinette said, so her mom didn’t worry. before hopping up to her balcony.

“Okay,” Marinette said to herself. It was time to figure out what to do. “Okay, I have special powers, and apparently this amusing super yoyo thingy.”

God, this was a disaster.

Marinette flung her yoyo over the edge of balcony in frustration only to have it fly across several streets and hook around something.

She tried pulling on it to get it to come back. The string did start retracting but instead of the yoyo returning to her, it pulled her off her feet and dragged her through the air.

Marinette did the only reasonable thing. she screamed.

* * *

Adrien extended the baton his suit had come with that never seemed to end, setting in on the roofs of two different buildings before he slowly made his way across.

“I’m getting the hang of this.” He said., starting to feel more confident. He was so going to rock this superhero thing.

Adrien looked up, did he hear screaming?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I couldn’t quite understand what tower the reporter said was destroyed but upon looking up towers in Paris to try and figure it out, this one is potentially the closest to what I heard.


	4. Origins Day 1 Part 4

He saw a red figure coming towards him as the screaming got louder, but before he could doing anything the figure smacked into him, sending them both tumbling towards the ground. Adrien felt the figure, another person, smack against his chest as, was that string?, wrapped around them. Right before the could hit the ground they suddenly stopped. The string had not only tangled them up, but saved them from a very painful landing. 

Adrien looked at the person tangled up with him. a girl that appeared around his age with blue haired pigtails and a domino mask just like his, though hers was ladybug patterned. 

“Well her there,” he greeted, “nice of you to drop in.”

“I’m sorry.” the girl apologized. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“I bet your the partner my Kwami told me about,” Adrien said, as soon as his feet were on the ground again and he was no longer tangled up with the girl. “I’m…mmm…” he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of a name yet. “Chat Noir. Yeah, Chat Noir.” He liked it, nice, simple. easy to remember and self explanatory. He looked to the girl who was trying to get her…yoyo? untangled from his baton which was still balancing above them between the two roof tops. “And you are?”

“I’m Mar-oh-mal-eh“ She said, pulling on her yoyo, also sounding like she hadn’t thought of a name. She stopped as her yoyo gave way. She reached out to grab it but unfortunately for Adrien, or Chat Noir as he was now being called, it thunked him on the head. His baton landed beside his feet with a clatter. “Madly clumsy.” the girl finished. “I am so clumsy.”

“No sweat clumsy girl,” Chat Noir said, grabbing his baton. “I’m learning the ropes too.”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ground shook which each boom. He and the girl both looked up and watched as the Montparnasse Tower collapsed. 

Chat Noir didn’t allow himself to feel horrified at what he just witness. He knew he needed to he help out and take down this villain before it could destroy anything else. 

He ran forward, shoving his baton towards the ground, allowing it to expand and vault him over to the tower, and Stoneheart. 

Time to actually _be_ a hero.

* * *

Marinette watched as the black cat theme person accurately named Chat Noir, vault himself towards danger. 

“Hey wait!” she called after him as he landed on the roof of a nearby building. “Where are you going?”

There was no way he could be heading towards Stoneheart. They hadn’t trained nor did they have a plan. There was no way they could take down a rock monster. 

“To save Paris, right.” Chat Noir called back to her.

So maybe she had been wrong. 

She watched as he jumped away, not being able to do anything to stop him.

She looked down at the yoyo in her hand. “Trust yourself.” she whispered, remembering all the words of encouragement Tikki had said to her before disappearing into the earrings. 

“Trust yourself.” she said, this time with a bit more forced confidence as she threw her hand back, spinning the yoyo, before flinging it towards the building Chat Noir had just jumped form. With a pulled and a scream, she was once again airborne, whether she wanted to be or not.

She so wasn’t cut out for this.

* * *

Chat Noir arrived at a stadium where Stoneheart was chasing a kid about his age. Chat Noir got his baton ready, aiming for just in front of the stone monster just as the kid trip and fell, successfully cutting Stoneheart off. 

“Hey,” he said landing, as the monsters target ran off. He brought his baton up to sit on his should, “it’s not very nice to pick on people who are smaller then you.”

“I guess you’re talking about yourself.” Stoneheart said. He pulled back in fist and swung it down aiming to squash Chat Noir. 

But Chat was expecting it. After all, what do you get when goading a villain. He jumped out of the way, placing his baton in front of him so he could fended himself. While this may not be like fencing, hopefully he’d be able to fight the monster off just fine. 

Stoneheart tried to smack him flat, like he was just an annoying bug but Chat managed to jump out of the way again.

When Stoneheart stuck down at him a third time, he was ready. He used the rocky fist as a jumping point, landing on the back of the things head and smacking him with the metal baton before jumping to safely.

A yellow light surrounded Stoneheart causing him to double in size, turning around to face Chat Noir, defiantly pissed off now.

That so wasn’t good.

“Where are you partner?” Chat Noir asked, mainly to himself since it was just him and Stoneheart. Now would so be a good time to have some back up.

* * *

Marinette watched as Chat Noir tried fighting Stoneheart, causing monster Ivan to just get bigger and angrier, though his main form of attack still seemed to be trying to squash Chat Noir like a bug. Like what she currently was.

“Oh, I can’t. I’m not going to be able to do it.” Marinette. Tikki should have chosen someone with confidence, who was athletic and had all their limbs and wasn’t a complete scary cat. 

Marinette watched in horror as Stoneheart lifted up the goal and flung it at Chat Noir, who managed to dodge it, but now it way flying towards the stadium entrance where Alya was crouching, filming the interaction on her phone. Chat Noir saw what was happening and flung his baton out, causing to expand and suspended itself over the concrete above Alya. The goal hit the baton, and bounced off, landing in the grass beside an unharmed Alya. 

Chat Noirs act of heroism caused him to not pay attention to Stoneheart, who picked up the feline hero in one of his giant fists. 

“What are you waiting for super red bug.” Alya’s voice called out to her. “The world is watching you.”

Now most people would think this would only set Marinette into a deeper spiral of panic but it actually helped. As Marigold, Marinette was used to trending to be someone else, and while as the base of it, she was still the same as Marigold, she didn’t change her personality completely, Marigold knew what to say or do, how to be confident and with a few tweaks, maybe even be a hero.

Marinette looked back at the Stoneheart held Chat Noir strapped, forcing any her fear and doubt, replacing it with determination. She could do this. First things first, rescue her partner.

Marinette jumped from the top of the stadium, eyes locked on Stoneheart, as she flung her yoyo out, wrapping around Stonehearts legs, as she slid between them.

“Animal cruelty? How shameful.” she said, giving the yoyo string a tug, tying Stonehearts legs together, causing him to fall to the ground, as well as releasing Chat Noir. 

Chat Noir bounce across the ground as he was flung from Stonehearts grip. Marinette heard Alya excitedly go ‘yes’ as she rushed over to him.

“Sorry it took so long, Chat Noir.” she apologized. 

“It’s cool Wonder Bug,” he said. He stretched out as he got to his feet. “Not lets kick his rocky behind.”

He rushed towards Stoneheart but Marinette grabbed his tail, his belt? tail, yanking him back towards her. “Wait.” she said. “Haven’t you noticed? He gets bigger and stronger with every attack. We have to do something different.”

But what?’

“Different how?” Chat Noir asked, as if reading her mind.

Which was un-usefully blank. “Uh,” she let out dumbly. She hadn’t really gotten that far in her plan. “I don’t know.”

“Okay,” Chat Noir said. He turned and faced Stoneheart. “Let’s use our powers. CATACLYSM!”

* * *

Chat Noir glanced at his hand, which not had black puffs of black smoke or something toxic looking, coming off of it. He turned to bug girl. “Apparently i destroy whatever I touch.” he told her.

“I don’t need a superpower to destroy everything.” Bug girl said, though it sounded like she only meant for herself to hear it. Chat Noir wondered if the cat ears actually gave him cat like hearing. He’d have to test it out later. 

For now, lets see what this hand could do.

Chat Noir turned around and touched the goal post, watching in fascination as it started to rust.

“No! Don’t do that!” Bug girl yelled right as his hand made contact. What was her problem? 

The goal post collapsed along with the rest of it.

“Cool!” Chat Noir said, turning back to Stoneheart. “It’s just you and me now.”

He ran towards the monster. “Time to rumble, soon to be rubble.”

“Chat Noir,” Bug girl called after him. “Wait.”

Why wait when he was about to end this thing?

Chat Noir jumped int eh air, propelling himself way higher then he would without the magic suit, smacking his hand against one fo Stonehearts toes as he landed. 

Nothing happened.

Why isn’t anything happening? It worked on the goal post.

He tapped his hand against the toe a few times. Maybe he just didn’t get enough contact. 

Nothing.

“Oh oh,” he said, looking up at the massive stone monster. “I guess I only get one shot to use my power.”

He waved at Stoneheart. Maybe if he looked none threatening, he wouldn’t be squished. 

Well he was half right, he thought to himself as Stoneheart kicked back towards bug girl. 

“And you only have five minutes before you transform back,” Bug girl told him as she looked down at him disapprovingly. “Didn’t you kwami explain anything to you?”

“Chat Noir put his hands behind his head somewhat sheepish but still wanting to appear confident. After all, it’s not like he was hurt. “I guess I was a little excited about my new life.”

“Well, up to me.” Bug girl said. She flung her yoyo up into the sky. “LUCKY CHARM!”

* * *

Marinette watched as a red light came from her yoyo and…a bodysuit fell from the sky. Wasn’t this power suppose to be helpful?

“Super power.” Chat Noir said in a slightly mocking tone, though it didn’t sound like he was trying to be hurtful. 

“My Kwami told me I had to break the object where the, whatchamacallit, the akuma, is hiding.” Marinette explained. 

“Well,” Chat Noir said, “he’s made entirely out of stone.”

“His right hand,” Marinette said, trying to think up a plan as she looked at a slowly approaching Stoneheart. “It’s still closed. He never opened it. It’s like the Russian dolls. The object isn’t on him, it’s hidden in his fist.”

“So what’s you plan?” Chat Noir asked. 

Marinette looked back at Stoneheart, thinking. It was as if the world went black and white. Stonehearts fist lit up in red with black polkadots. So did Alya who was still filming on the other side of the field. And finally so did the hose, once at where you turned it on and then again where it laid at her and Chats feet. 

“This.” Marinette said, reaching down and picking up the hose as her plan formed. She shoved it into the wetsuit, which was like a wetsuit version of her suit, making sure the hose couldn’t slip out. 

She then tossed out her yoyo, wrapping it around Chat Noirs feet. “Don’t resist.” She old him. “Trust me.”

She yanked Chat Noir off his feet, who let out a scream of alarm, swinging him around a bunch of times before flinging him away, right into Stonehearts fist. 

“This girl’s crazy!” Chat Noir yelled as she did so.

“Catch me if you can.” she taunted Stoneheart. She flung herself at Stoneheart, aiming closer to his right fist. 

Just as she’d hoped, Stoneheart opened up his fist, dropping the object hidden within, as he grabbed her. 

“And now,” Marinette said, glancing towards her new friend. “Alya! The tap!”

Thankfully Alya got what she meant, instantly running towards the tap and turning it on. Within mamanents the wetsuit expanded, forcing Stoneheart to release her. She landed and instantly ran to the idea he’d dropped, stomping her foot on it. The rock like item crushed under her foot, releasing a black and purple butterfly. She watched it fly away, amazed that she had done it. 

* * *

Chat Noir watched as bug girl stomped on the time that had following out of Stonehearts hand. A weird black and purple butterfly flew out and away. Purple cracks started to appear along Stoneheart until he was completely incased in them. They crumbled away revealing a large teenage boy around his age.

Chat Noir landed on his butt unceremoniously since there was no longer a rock fist holding him up in the air. He turned and looked back at the bug girl. 

“That girl is awesome,” he couldn’t help but say. There was no way he could have saved the day without her. Nor could he have come up with that plan. “She’s crazy awesome.”

“Wha-what’s going on?” The boy who used to be Stoneheart asked. “What am I doing here?”

Chat Noir was confused but he ignored the boy instead turning toward bug girl. “You were incredible miss..a… bug lady.” he complimented. “You did it.”

Bug lady put her hands out in front of her to stop him. “We both did it, partner,” she told him. She put her hand out and Adrien instantly got what she was try8ing to do, throwing his own fist out.

“Pound it,” they both said as they fist bumped. 

Chat Noirs ring let out an annoying beeping sound. He glanced at it to see the toxic green paw print blinking.

“You should get going,” Bug lady said. “Our identities must remain secret.”

Fair enough.

Chat Noir gracefully bowed towards his partner, “Fair well milady.” he said turning around and running away. “Let’s do this again soon, okay?” he called behind him. 

* * *

Marinette watched as he jumped and used his baton to get out of the stadium. “Uh huh,” Marinette agreed. “Not too soon I hope.”

She didn’t need another monster attacking Paris after all. 

She glanced back at Ivan who was sitting confused on the ground. She looked at the piece of paper in her hand and couldn’t help but wonder what Kim had written that had sent Ivan off so badly earlier in the day. 

“ _You haven’t even got the guts to tell Mylène you love her, wuss,”_ she read aloud. 

Marinette felt her heart go out to Ivan. She walked doer to him.

“Kim wrote it,” He explained since as far as he knew, she didn’t know who he was or what was going on. “He’s always making fun of me.”

Marinette couched down, placing a hand on his shoulder, hating the ashamed looked on his face. She couldn’t believe how mean Kim could be sometimes. “You know, you should get so bent out of shape about that.” Marinette told him, trying to cheer him up. “There’s no shame in telling someone you love them, Ivan.”

Ivan looked at her confused. “Hey, how do you know my name, miss?”

Marinette quickly pulled her hand away. Shit, she hadn’t thought about that.

“Uncanny.” Marinette turned and saw Alya crouched close to them, still filming. “Amazing! Spectacular! Are you protecting Paris from now on? How did you get your powers? Did you get stung by a radioactive ladybug?”

Marinette defaulted to her reporter training, ignoring Alya’s questions as she headed towards the end of the stadium so she could leave. 

“Oh I have a ton of questions to ask you, miss, uh…” Alya trailed off. 

“Ladybug. Call me Ladybug,” Marinette watched herself say to Alya before using her yoyo to propel herself to the top of the stadium and way.

“Ladybug,” Alya repeated, keeping her phone’s camera on Marinette as Ladybug. “Super awesome.”

The screen went back to Nadja of TVi. “So thanks to this ammeter forage,” she said, “ the Parisians now know the identities of their heroes.”

Marinette couldn’t help but smile. “I did it Tikki.” she said happily.

Tikki, who had reappeared once the Ladybug costume had transformed back, thankfully returning Marinette to normal, black hair, regular prosthetic and everything, floated up to her face. “You see, you were up to it.” she said hugging her cheek. Marinette closed her and nudged her with her head affectionally.

“Marinette, dinner time!” Her maman called from downstairs. Marinette turned her computer off and made her way downstairs, a little hop in her step, feeling proud of what she’d done to protect her city and save Ivan from the evil butterfly thing.

Marinette got downstairs to see her maman and dad by the table with the TV on to the news. 

“I am please to announce we will be holding a huge celebration in honour of our cities new protectors, Ladybug and Chat Noir.” Mayor Bourgeois announced from in front of Hôtel de Ville. 

* * *

“Ladybug. Her name is Ladybug.” Adrien said, watching Mayor Bourgeois’s news conference. He couldn’t stop thinking about her and the way she had saved the day. He wondered if she was English since she chose an English name for her hero persona. 

“EWIE!” Plagg said flying over to him. Adrien hadn’t even noticed that Plagg had gotten into his food, carrying his desert over to him with a look of disgust on his little face. “What is this?”

“Seriously?” Adrien demanded. He could so do with the annoying flying cat. “My personal chef made all this.”

“If you expected to get my energy back,” Plagg said, throwing the dessert to the ground, “after a transformation, I need to eat something more delicate.”

Adrien sighed. Why couldn’t he just have a magic ring that gave him powers. “Okay, what do you want?”

* * *

“Oh my!” Marinette turned from where she was washing the dishes to look at her maman in alarm. Was she okay? Did something happen?

Her maman was looking at the TV where Nadja was reporting on Stoneheart again.

“Just as Paris is about to celebrate the appearance of our two new superheroes Ladybug and Chat Noir,” Nadja said as the TV changed to show a clip of purple butterfly landing on a lands shoulder, turning him into Stoneheart, “a new wave of panic is sweeping across the capital as dozens of people are mysteriously transformed into stone monsters.”

Marinette felt horror sweep over her and her papa pulled her maman to his chest. 

“It’s simply unbelievable,” Nadja continued.

Marinette bolted from the kitchen and up to the privacy of her room so she could talk to Tikki without her parents seeing. 

* * *

“Camembert cheese,” Adrien said. Why did it have to by stupid, stinky cheese. “Fantastic. All he eats is Camembert cheese, which means I’m going to smell like stinky old cheese.”

“These victims transformed into stone beings,” Nadja caught his attention as she reported on what looked like dozens more Stonehearts, “are still, like statues. Police are perplexed. What will happen to them? Will they come to life? Or will they stay frozen in time forever?”

“Plagg, what’s going on?” Adrien asked, getting to his feet. He thought everything was suppose to be good now that they’d defeated the original Stoneheart. “I thought we defeated him.”

“Did you capture the Akuma?” he asked.

* * *

“What’s capturing the Akuma have to do with the other stone beings?” Marinette asked, not understanding what Tikki meant. 

“An Akuma can multiply.” Tikki explained. “That’s why it must be captured. If Ivans emotions become negative again then the Akuma will turn him back into Stoneheart again. He’ll control the stone beings and bring them to life to serve as his army.”

“So that means that this is all my fault.” Marinette said, bringing her hands up to her face as panic started to settle in. “I knew it! See Tikki, I’m not cut out to be a superhero. I’m only going to keep messing up.”

“Keep calm, it was only your first time.” Tikki said, trying to reassure her. “You’re going to go back and capture Stonehearts akuma,” Marinette turned her back not wanting to listen to Tikki. She was a failure, “and do it successfully.”?

Marinette whipped around to face Tikki. “I can’t. I told you I’m clumsy, and a cripple, and I create disaster all the time.” she said. “I’m only make things worse, for me, for you, for everyone. Chat Noir will be better off without me. I’m quitting.”

* * *

“So I can’t do anything without Ladybug?” Adrien asked Plagg. That sucked. 

“Only Ladybug can capture akumas and repair damage caused by super villains.” Plagg explained.

Okay. That was fine. Sure he would have to wait for her to make a move but she had kicked ass earlier in the day so she’d be able to do it again. 

* * *

Marinette looked at herself in her vanity mirror, only able to see what a failure she was. “If Chat Noir can’t capture akumas then just find another Ladybug. I told you, I’m not cut out to be a hero.” Marinette told Tikki. She was done. She wasn’t a hero and that was the end of it. She took off her prosthetic arm so she could use her numb to help take her earrings off. “I’m sorry Tikki.” she said as she did so.

“No! Don’t ta-“ Whatever Tikki was going to say suddenly cut off. Marinette looked up and saw that Tikki had disappeared.

“Tikki?” she called softly. She looked around her room before sighing. It made sense that Tikki had disappeared now that Marinette had decided not to become a hero. 

Marinette turned back to her vanity, where the hexagon box was, and carefully placed the earrings inside, placing the box in the middle door and shutting it away. It was better this way.

“I’m really sorry, Tikki,” Marinette said, feeling grief wash over her. Grief for losing Tikki, who’d she liked, and grief for failing Paris and trapping innocent people as stone monsters. 

She’d find a new Ladybug tomorrow. Someone who’d actually be a hero.


End file.
